German Reformation was represented in a pantomime, said to have been acted before the emperor Charles the Fifth. A man clothed in the garb of a doctor of divinity, to represent Reuchlin, first came forward, with a bundle of sticks, some crooked and some straight, which he deposited in the middle of the room, and then walked away. A secular priest, Erasmus, next followed, who took great pains to lay the sticks in order, and make the crooked straight, which, failing to accomplish, he shook his head mournfully and departed. Erasmus was followed by a monk, Luther, who went to work in a different manner, and with a more determined spirit: he set fire to the sticks, and, when the flames were enkindled, withdrew. Next came the emperor, who held a sword in his hand, with which he sought to extinguish the flames; but the more he stirred the lighted sticks about, the fiercer they burned. Lastly came the pope himself, who wrung his hands with grief and vexation, and looked eagerly about for some means of quenching the conflagration. At a distance stood a vessel of oil and a vessel of water, and in his trepidation he took up the former, and, pouring its contents upon the burning mass, so nourished and redoubled its fury, that he was forced to retire in a hurry.

In this representation there was some truth. Reuchlin and Erasmus had exposed the corruptions of the church of Rome, and had made some partial attempts at reformation; but it was the intrepid Luther who kindled that flame in Germany, which the united efforts of the pope and the emperor could not extinguish. The more they sought to quench it, the higher it cast its brightness towards the heavens.

Not less correct is the representation of the reformation in Europe shadowed forth by a richly-coloured drawing, in a copy of the Gospels, formerly used in the church of the Hussites, and now preserved in the library at Prague. In this drawing Wickliffe is represented as striking fire with a flint and steel; Huss lighting a small heap of wood; and Luther holding in his hand a blazing torch.

Luther, an Augustinian friar, was a man of strong feelings and an acute intellect. His mind was free from many prejudices; and before he entered upon his public career he prepared himself for the combat with "thrones, dominions, and powers," by a diligent study of the Holy

Scriptures. Convinced of the corruption of that church of which he was a member, he felt himself called upon to resist the iron yoke under which his country and all Europe were groaning, and resolutely stood forth as their champion. It seems certain, however, that when Luther commenced his career, he had no just idea of the magnitude of the results which would follow, and that if he had not at the outset met with unworthy and cruel treatment, he would not have become such a "burning and a shining light" to the nations around, as he is justly represented in the annals of Europe. Irritated and afflicted by bitter invectives and incessant persecution, he was impelled to go to the extreme, and a contest which commenced about some few points in doctrine and practice, and on which justice was always ranged on his side, was gradually extended to all the dogmas of the church of Rome, which were brought out of its armory, and freely used as weapons against him, and finally to their great bulwark, the authority of the pope.

The mind of Luther appears to have received a great impulse upon visiting Rome. He saw, and was shocked at, the corruptions in discipline and morals which existed in the seat of the papacy. The profligacy of Julius II., then filling the papal chair, and the ignorance and shameless conduct of the clergy, not only disgusted his mind, but excited in it a lively concern for the interests of that holy religion which was thus misrepresented, abused, and trampled under the feet of its professors. He returned to Germany in heart a reformer.

O grace superb, and wonderful as deep,
That Rome and Luther should confronted be;
And there, in superstitious heart, our text-
Almighty like a thunderbolt of truth
Down from the throne of revelation hurl'd-
Should raise him, while he crouch'd in faith
Deluded! Thus the champion for his cause
Was meeten'd; thus from Rome herself he drew
Weapons of might, whereby her powers would fall.
So, swift recoiling from his task abhorr'd,*
Uprose the brave Reformer!

R. MONTGOMERY.

The practice of indulgences was one of the first errors that engaged the attention of Luther. Viewing them by the light of Scripture, which he rightly considered as the great standard of theological truth, he saw that they were equally subversive of faith and morals. In his sermons he long and loudly lifted up his voice against the doctrine of indulgences, by which he

An allusion to his ascending St. Peter's stair

case upon his knees, as described by D'Aubigne.